


==> Be Karkat (again)

by Unda



Series: It's the end of the world as we know it [19]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Free Will, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-03-11 01:30:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13513938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unda/pseuds/Unda
Summary: Comprises the free will section ==> Be Karkat (again) in chapter 34 of MC Escher





	==> Be Karkat (again)

==> Be Karkat (again)

You’ve always been you, what? At the very least you were yourself a moment ago. Whatever, this line of thought is strange.

Everyone is looking over their teams thoughtfully and it occurs to you that if you stay around you’ll invite questions and the whole point is that they don’t question this. So you tell them all good luck and leave. It feels good, you’re excited to see what they do and you really hope that your plan works. It has potential, of that you’re sure. 

Vriska falls into step beside you and grins her fangy grin down at you. 

“You’re better at this than I thought.” she says sweetly. You groan and keep walking. 

“I have a question about my team though, why do I get stuck with a babysitter?” Vriska demands, showing you her paper as if you hadn’t written it. 

You think: ‘Because you and a few members of your team can be wildly irresponsible and adult supervision is the only sane way to deal with that.’

You say: “The numbers didn’t line up right otherwise, plus from what I hear John’s dad is some secret badass. Apparently in an escape attempt he put a cigarette out in Jack Noir’s eye.” 

“Yeah, I heard about that too. Shame his kids are such weenies. But I guess if anyone is capable of ordering an adult around it’s me.” she preens. 

“Yeah, well. You know what they say about underestimating humans.” you point out as you shove the door to the communal eating area open again, you also graciously aren’t pointing out that John is her soulmate. You’re pretty sure she’s worked that out anyway. 

“Let me guess, don’t?” Vriska snorts. 

“Exactly.” you nod and walk over to your brothers. All of them in fact. 

“You’re not gonna climb on our table too are you?” Mituna snorts. 

“It’s bad manners at the very least.” Kankri agrees. 

“No. Anyway, here’s the deal, we’re all splitting up into groups for today at the very least to work on separate things at the same time. The three of you are in my team.” you explain to all of them. 

“Seems like you gave yourself an easy team to work with if you just picked your brothers, is that fair?” Kankri wonders. Yeah… not so much. 

“Splitting up works so well in horror movies, great plan.” Sollux drawls. 

“What? No! It’s like we’re just finally not all pushing mid like noobs.” Mituna argues. 

“The best thing about the world ending is no more League of Legends and hearing you screech from down the hall about it.” Sollux sneers. Mituna gasps in outrage and a red spark of light flares between the two of them making Sollux recoil with a hiss. Blue and red start sparking between them as the psionic equivalent of a slap fight starts up. 

“I take your point.” Kankri says after a moment. 

Yeah between the Captors bickering constantly and Kankri rubbing you the wrong way more often than not this group is going to be less ‘family fun time’ and more ‘SO HELP ME I WILL TURN THIS CAR AROUND IF YOU KEEP FIGHTING’. 

“Let me just get our last team member.” you groan. You walk away from the light show and to the table across the room where the older humans are gathered, Jane is already walking off with John but Dirk, Jake and Roxy are still there. 

“-can be my second in command!” Roxy says gleefully. She’s kneeling up in her chair with her arm around Dirk’s neck. 

“It’ll be great, no little sibling drama, no soulmate drama- no offence Jake.” Roxy amends quickly. 

“None taken, I think we’re guilty of that.” Jake grins at her, his cheeks dimpling as he does so. 

“Good! It’ll be rad, Dirk. Just you ‘n me, the original StriLonde duo, it’ll be great brosef!” she enthuses. 

“As much as I’d like that I’m not technically your brother, Rox.” Dirk points out, looking up at her. Roxy puffs up her cheeks and blows a raspberry at him. 

“Yeah and Bro and Mom weren’t technically parents of any kind so I say we decide who our family is and you’re my brother whether you like it or not, bucko.” she insists and pokes him in the nose. 

“I think you just got schooled, Strider.” Jake chuckles. 

“Guess so. Ok,  _ sis,  _ who else is on our team? Oh wise and benevolent leader?” Dirk asks and Roxy squirms away from him.

“You, ah, you let me worry about that!” she says quickly and zips off. 

“Hey!” Dirk calls out after her and chases her, leaving you and Jake alone. 

“Uh, Jake you’re on my team. What say we get out of here before Dirk finds out who else I put on Roxy’s team and kills me.” you say quickly. 

“Oh boy, do I want to know?” Jake laughs as he stands up. 

“Probably not, come on.” you tell him and head back to the table with your brothers. Oh, great, Psii is there now and there are a lot of overturned chairs around and judging from Kankri’s smug expression he tattled to Psii to end the fight. That’ll be great for team morale. 

“It’s you, me, and my brothers.” you explain as you walk closer to them. 

“Can I ask you something, Karkat?” Jake asks carefully. You pause and look up at him, he seems a little uncertain. 

“Sure?” you say. 

“Roxy said you picked the teams for everyone. I get why you’d pick your brothers for your own team but why add me as the fifth person? Why not Dave or Kanaya?” Jake asks. See, this is exactly why you picked him, he understands how this stuff works. 

“Because I don’t know you that well, but everyone who does likes you. Plus I could do with an external perspective with my family. I need to get Kankri to act more like he did when he stood up to Signless and I need to stop thinking of him as my stupid older brother and treat him like a competent player. Sollux and Mituna need to work together and it’d be great if they stopped relying on their psionics for everything. If I had Kanaya here I’d just be complaining to her the whole time and if Dave was here neither me nor Sollux could focus on shit. I mean, shit, you have a sister you must get this, right?” you ask. 

“Oh boy,” Jake whistles and sets his hands on his hips, “I certainly do know what you mean! Perhaps more so, Jade used to be the only person I ever saw. It’s hard to treat her like the adult she’s becoming when I just see my little sister but it helps that I know darn well how competent she is.” 

“So, maybe you could help us and we could get to know each other. I mean, our soulmates are brothers so…” you shrug, you probably should get to know the guy better. 

“So we’re practically family!” Jake finishes and slings an arm around your shoulder. That was not what you were going to say but… okay. 

When you arrive back at the table Sollux and Mituna are sat on opposite sides now, scowling at each other. 

“Jake’s our last member?” Sollux asks as he sees you two approach.

“Yes, I hope that’s okay with you fellows!” Jake says brightly. 

“Whatever, I was just worried he was gonna bring someone shitty back like Eridan or Aranea.” Sollux grimaces. 

“I am also glad that you didn’t bring anyone’s quadrants or other partners back, that would have been complicated.” Kankri agrees. Jake grabs an upturned seat from the floor and sits on it backwards, what a dork. 

“Right, so, our mission-” you begin.

“Should we choose to accept it.” Jake chirps and Mituna laughs loudly at the interruption. Oh boy. 

“Shut up, I know we haven’t all made much progress in our quests so that might be something to focus on. I’ve done a lot with mine but it just feels like I’m not getting anywhere. Where is everyone else on that front?” you ask. 

“I’ve done a lot of questing on my land, there’s a whole mess of temples and dungeons underneath all of the mirror buildings so I’ve made quite a bit of headway.” Jake informs you all. You didn’t know he was doing that well, that’s good. 

“I can’t stay on mine for too long but Dave’s dragged me through a few quests when one of us can’t sleep so I’ve got a bit done.” Sollux shrugs. 

“Mine is a lot of coding games so I’m rocking mine!” Mituna brags. Sollux presses his face into the table and miserably mutters something that sounds a lot like ‘lucky asshole’. 

You look at Kankri. 

“I must admit that my planet has not been… working well. I find the consorts there to be unreasonable and it’s an extreme impediment to any of my quests.” Kankri huffs. You exchange a look with the others.

“Everyone to your planet then.” you announce. 

The flight there is uneventful, most of your focus is in setting up the group memo for the other leaders who all, pleasingly, seem to have independently chosen discrete tasks so you don’t even have to make rulings on the group choices. 

Kankri’s planet is the Land of Execution and Empathy, a lot of the themes of it are similar to yours. Red landscape, stone everywhere. He doesn’t have hermit crabs for consorts like you but rather mantis shrimp which are colourful and every bit as annoying as yours. He is missing the rivers of blood on his planet but instead he gets rather unsettling guillotines scattered around the place. You’ve been here with him before to try to help out but frankly the pair of you made more progress in avoiding the consorts and finding out the history of the planet. From your experience with the culture and the consorts you’re pretty sure the place ought to be renamed the Land of Discourse and Discord. 

“They’re so colourful!” Jake exclaims as he looks up a hill at two of the shrimp. 

“I read about those before, they’re really violent and you can’t even keep them in tanks ‘cus they break the glass.” Sollux explains. 

“Psh, yea, we all saw the zefrank ‘true facts about the mantis shrimp’ video dude.” Mituna snorts. 

“What video?” Sollux asks. 

“Oh shit you haven’t? Hold on I’ll check Hal-tube.” Mituna says gleefully and just like that you’ve lost both Captors to Hal’s preserved slice of youtube. 

“What’re they arguing about?” Jake asks, squinting up at the shrimp on the red hill. 

“The game, probably.” you sigh. 

“The consorts here are split roughly into two factions. One believes that the players way of doing things is inherently right and should not be questioned which seems helpful except they will happily lead you down a wrong path in a quest because they feel that diversion is part of the learning experience. The second group feels that players need to be challenged and aims to make our quests as hard as possible in an attempt to foster growth.” Kankri elaborates. 

“So given a quest you’ll get, what, the classic one always lies and one tells the truth? Or rather one always lies and the other just tells you whatever you want to hear?” Jake guesses. 

“Yeah, you see why I tried to avoid them.” you say. 

Up on the hill the arguing is louder and even more shrill and then, apparently with little provocation, one consort reels off and punches the other in the face. The hit instantly decapitates and kills the other shrimp. 

“Cripes!” Jake yelps and the consort’s multicoloured eyes swivel around to you. 

“Ah, fuck.” you hiss and arm yourself. 

“You shouldn’t have help with your quests!” the consort yells as it rushes down the hill on its tiny legs. It grabs up a boulder and lifts it overhead, clearly intending on throwing it at you all. Jake tries to put himself between it and you but the consort and the boulder suddenly fly up in the air and then fly over the nearest hill at a considerable speed. 

“Denied!” Mituna cackles and you turn to see light still dancing around his eyes. 

“Mituna, we should really try to engage them in debate, to remove them from their destructive all or nothing thinking patterns. Not just- just throw them over a hill!” Kankri insists. 

“Kan, it was about to remove your face from your body with that rock.” Mituna points out. 

“You’re a seer, right? What are the other seers’ quests?” Sollux asks thoughtfully. 

“Uh, Rose has to fill her ocean with fish or something but I don’t know how she does that or if she’s doing it at all. Terezi is a Seer of Mind and I think hers is a big FLARP game where she has to advise on the moves of one team to the other. Terezi said she was making loads of progress on that, unsurprisingly.” you answer. 

“Damn, that’s no kind of pattern at all.” Sollux frowns. 

“Well, and this might be hogwash, but perhaps your quest is less about your aspect and more about you. Take Rose for example.” Jake says. 

“Rather not.” Sollux mutters and you growl in equal irritation, but low enough that Jake’s human ears can’t hear you. Rose is not in the good books of either you or Sollux and you don’t know how much he knows but it’s clearly enough to make him defensive. 

“She’s always been a thoughtful girl who tried to work out everything ten steps ahead, Roxy always said so. So giving her quest all about learning to do that would be a waste of time so she’s got something else. Dirk’s planet is entirely tailored to his own business as well. Could this be something more to do with you, Kankri, than with being a seer?” Jake suggests. 

“I don’t see how, both sides have equal merit to their arguments but they’re just taking them too extreme. And it’s difficult to get them to meet and come to some agreement that would be beneficial to my quest when one side is perfectly happy to kill consorts on the other side. I’ve done my level best to give them both a space to air their grievances but it just results in bloodshed and I don’t understand why.” Kankri says unhappily. 

“What makes you think that you can even argue with these idiots? They’re killing each other, you can’t reason with people who kill people for not agreeing with them.” Sollux argues. 

“If everyone behaves in good faith, listens and lets everyone have their say then a productive debate can be had! Bloodshed is what happens when we fail that task.” Kankri lectures. Mituna appears to be considering throwing Kankri over the hill as well. 

“No, this isn’t right. You’re acting like you have a light quest, like your job is to bring truth to these people but it’s not. You’re a blood player, you’re supposed to be about bonds and relationships, your planet has ‘empathy’ in the title!” you shout. 

“Maybe it’s treating consorts as people even when they’re wrong?” Jake guesses, though he doesn’t sound too convinced. 

Great, this whole planet is bullshit and your group has done nothing outside of have pointless debate and make one shrimp airborne. This mission is turning out to be a great, big, failure. Just like you. Kankri puts his hands on your shoulders and looks you earnestly in the eyes, his grey ones are already starting to get hints of your father’s red coming through. 

“Karkat, please. Let me do this my way, let’s go to one of the main meeting squares and get everyone involved in a rational debate. We can solve this.” He pleads with you. 

“Fine, we give this one last try your way.” you agree reluctantly. If nothing else after this you can come to another solution if it’s been proven that his won’t work. 

It’s a short walk along red stone pathways to a medieval looking square that wouldn’t look out of place on your planet at all. Except for, oh say, the giant guillotine on a platform that is raised and dominates the stage of the square. 

The shrimp are of course all arguing with each other but when they see you two of them break off of the group to trot over to you on their slender little legs. 

“Players! Welcome, welcome!” one says, clattering its mandibles together in glee. 

“You really need help like this? This is supposed to be a personal quest.” the second says irritably, repeating the same argument as the first shrimp you saw today. 

“I’m sure that the players know better than we would.” the first shrimp points out. 

“If he knows so much then why has he made so little progress? It’s the fault of your kind that he lags behind so much!” the second argues, pointing at Kankri with a claw. 

“Maybe both of you could stand to be more constructive and helpful, huh?” you cut in and both shrimp swivel their eyes to look at you. 

“That seems like an interesting point.” the first says. 

“No it’s not, a Knight of Blood cannot teach a Seer of Blood!” the second argues. 

“Oh, wow, this is really annoying.” Jake grumbles. You’re inclined to agree. 

More shrimp are surrounding you all, apparently interested in what’s going on. 

“Perhaps,” Kankri says and steps forward into the crowd leaving you to quickly follow to stay at his side so he’s not alone, “perhaps if what some of you want is for me to advance and what the rest of you want is to be helpful to me you can work together and help me in a way that’s best. Come to common ground.” 

“That at the very least has got to be something you agree on, right? Even if you don’t agree on how right now.” you add. 

Distantly there’s a sound like a clock chiming. 

“What the fuck?” Sollux’s voice comes from behind you. You look back as Kankri continues debating with the shrimp surrounding you. 

“What?” you ask.

“I swear I just heard a clock and then saw Aradia fly up into the air over there and vanish.” Sollux frowns. 

“Maybe it’s a future her looped here, or a past one.” you suggest. You’re glad you’re not time, you’d never keep that straight. 

“Yes, we will agree to help you, to do what you need.” one shrimp shouts loudly and you return your focus to the chattering crustaceans around you. 

“If what they want is to advance it doesn’t need to be specifically what they want right now.” another pipes up. 

“Yes, I can certainly see how a quest that might be frustrating could be beneficial in the long run and I wouldn’t wish to shy away from those challenges.” Kankri agrees happily. 

You pause suspiciously, you’re starting to feel like you sometimes do in a debate where your opponent is setting up pitfalls and it readying themselves to shove you in. You’ve done it enough to other people before as well.

“So do what is best for them.” another shrimp further back shouts. 

“Whether they want us to or not!” a different one agrees loudly. 

“Kankri, I’m not sure about this.” you whisper. 

“Karkat,” Kankri begins but a claw clamps tight around your wrist. Others grab hold of you by the legs, by your clothes and they’re doing it to Kankri too. You screech in alarm as they effortlessly lift you into the air. 

Sollux and Mituna wail in agony and as you are held up on your back you and tip your head back and see them. Tears stream from their eyes and their hands are clasped around their heads. Jake is trying to shield them with his body and shoot at the shrimp carrying you but no matter how many he takes out it’s not stopping them from taking you and you know what your destination is. The giant guillotine in the corner. 

You scream, swear and threaten as you’re dragged away. Your mouth runs with insults, threats and rage as you struggle to get free, as you watch Jake and your brothers are pinned down on the ground by angry shrimp. It’s only when you’re bodily pinned to the bench of the guillotine that you feel any fear. And it’s not fear yourself in the most part though that is there. It’s fear for how your team will cope with this, for how Dave will feel, for how your parents will cope, for Kanaya being left without you and whether everyone will fall apart now or if Vriska can keep things in control without you. 

“I’m sorry.” Kankri chokes out. He’s shoulder to shoulder with you and red is leaking out of his eyes and tears well up. 

You tangle your fingers with his and open your mouth to tell him that it’s not his fault when you hear a whoosh and then nothing. 

It’s just… nothing. 

You open your eyes and for a moment you don’t know where you are, all you can see is that Kankri is next to you. His clothes are different, like Rose’s but differently coloured. You’re not on the guillotine anymore either you’re on a maroon slab of stone. Your quest bed, just like Dave’s.

You sit up with a jerk just in time for your brothers to fling themselves at you and Kankri, squishing you all together. 

“You assholes! Don’t ever do that again!” Sollux shouts, his lisp coming in thick now that he’s too distressed not to do anything about it. 

“Are you okay?” Kankri asks and Sollux and Mituna pull back from you. 

“Are  _ we _ okay!? You’re the ones who fucking DIED!” Mituna shouts, flailing his arms. 

“I’m so sorry, I was supposed to be helping and I couldn’t stop it.” Jake sniffs. 

“It’s not your fault.” you assure him. In your pocket your phone buzzes and, oh yeah, Dave is probably losing his shit right now. But the message isn’t from Dave at all and in fact you have a few of them. Oh no. 

[gardenGnostic began pestering carcinoGeneticist] 

GG: karkat you had better not be dead!

GG: dave is just curled up in a ball right now screaming and i tried to help but he kicked me!

GG: you had better be coming back to life! i can see how black his arm has gone so you better be on a quest bed buster

GG: karkat we are really worried!!!

GG: screw it we are coming to find you

CG: NO IT’S FINE I’M ALIVE!

CG: OH GOD I’M SO SORRY IS HE OK?

GG: absolutely not but message him yourself!!!

[gardenGnostic ceased pestering carcinoGeneticist] 

[carcinoGeneticist began trolling turntechGodhead]

CG: I’M ALIVE I’M SO SORRY DAVE I KNOW HOW SHITTY THAT FEELS. 

TG: i nearly barfed and then freaked out on jade when she tried to touch me and kicked her in the face

CG: YEAH THAT MAKES SENSE, I’M SO SORRY THOUGH AND I’M FINE NOW. THIS WASN’T EVEN DELIBERATE, KANKRI’S CONSORTS DRAGGED US HERE AND I LITERALLY CANNOT GROVEL ENOUGH FOR PUTTING YOU THROUGH THAT. 

TG: im not mad i just really need to see you

CG: I GET THAT. I’LL BE RIGHT HERE ON KANKRI’S OOZING PUSTULE OF A PLANET. I SHOULD PROBABLY ALSO GO THROW MYSELF AT KANAYA’S FEET BEFORE SHE FINDS OUT ABOUT THIS.

TG: too late

[turntechGodhead ceased trolling carcinoGeneticist] 

Well, fuck. 

[carcinoGeneticist began trolling grimAuxiliatrix] 

CG: YOU MAY HAVE HEARD THAT I DIED, JUST TO CUT THAT OFF AT THE PASS.

GA: Was This Not True Then Or Were You Hoping To Stop Me Messaging You About Your Death

CG: NO, I DID BITE IT IN A VERY ELABORATE AND FORMAL FASHION BUT I GOT BETTER SO YOU DON’T NEED TO WORRY. ALSO NOW I’M APPARENTLY GOD TIER SO THAT’S GOOD I GUESS.

GA: Given Your Proclivity Towards Heroism I Do Not Think I Entirely Agree That It Is Good That Your Conditional Immortality Is Now Linked To That But I Certainly Prefer It To The Option Where You Are Just Dead

CG: UH.

CG: RIGHT.

CG: NOT TO LOOK A GIFT HOOFBEAST IN THE MOUTH BUT I’M NOT TOTALLY CERTAIN IF YOU’RE CALM ABOUT THIS OR OVERWHELMED WITH ANGER AT MY UNDENIABLE IDIOCY AND YOUR LACK OF PUNCTUATION IN TEXT IS NOT HELPING ME OUT HERE KAN. 

GA: I Am Not Angry At You Karkat On The Contrary I Am Unspeakably Relieved That You Are Alive Again And I Am Trying To Contain Myself Given That I Have Already Been Crying In Front Of People I Do Not Care To Cry Before

CG: OH SHIT. I’M THE WORST, I’M SO SORRY. 

GA: You Do Not Have To Keep Apologising I Know You Did Not Deliberately Do This I Will Be Fine

GA: You Can Make Up For It Later

CG: FOR SURE, WHATEVER YOU WANT TO DO. <>

GA: <>

“How did we get here?” you ask, putting your phone away.

“They carried you and us, at least for a while.” Jake explains. He’s massaging one of his wrists and you can see the rough pinser marks on his skin. 

You’re about to ask what happened when you note that a lot of the nearby architecture appears to have big slices lasered into it, huge hunks of masonry have toppled to the floor after being cut off from their bases. There are charred and smoking sections of the landscape that simply have nothing there anymore. You do not have to be a genius to guess how your brothers and Jake got free. Distantly there are more mantis shrimp but they’re lingering back away from everyone, all seemingly unwilling to be the first to get closer again.

Your sickles drop into your hands as you glare at them and stand up. Your new cape flutters in the breeze behind you and you instantly get why Dave is so into his. Kankri is also getting to his feet, his seer robes fluttering around his legs as he does so, he’s staring wide eyed at the shrimp. 

“Oh.” he says softly and then turns to look at all of you. 

“What?” you ask, keeping an eye on the shrimp as they scuttle closer as a unit. 

“I can… see.” he whispers. He reaches out with his hand and touches your cheek and suddenly you get what he means. 

Between the two of you is a rust coloured chain, thick links the size of your finger joined together. More chains spread out from your chest, many reaching into the air like strings on balloons that fade before you can see where they go but there are similar rust coloured chains between you and your other brothers and between them and Kankri, and you. Thinner and more delicate chains loop between Jake and the rest of you these ones silvery and fine. 

They’re bonds, relationships. Your siblings are connected to you, Kankri can see all of that and he’s sharing that vision with you now. You look down at your soulmark and as soon as you know to look for it you can see the giant golden chain that manacles itself around your wrist, it’s Dave. He’s with you forever. 

You look back to the shrimp who are advancing closer still. Even amongst them you can see spiderwebbing relationships connecting all of them but some… there are two shrimp in particular who are connecting groups of shrimp to themselves with toxic looking green chains. You focus but you can’t see any shrimp that is linked to both, it’s all one or the other. 

“See, even with this advance he’s still relying on others!” one of the central shrimp calls out and all of those connected to it yell in agreement. That’s it, they’re the ones influencing the others. You never could have found it without Kankri’s gifted vision. 

Unthinkingly you hold up your right hand towards that shrimp and focus on those toxic green chains, as that shrimp talks its words resonate through them making things impossible for Kankri to continue. You float upwards in the air and fling your sickle through the air. The second it leaves your palm you see it attached to you with a bright red chain that spools out endlessly from your hand. You jerk it and watch as your weapon slices through those toxic links to the other consorts and severs them all and then your weapon faithfully returns to you, smacking into your palm. 

“Stop them!” the shrimp consort insists, waving a claw at you all. 

The other consorts look at each other and murmur in disagreement. With Kankri’s hand on your shoulder now you can see the chains on the other leader shrimp falling away, with one toppled the other one cannot sustain itself. You let go of your weapons. You have this… feeling that you can do something. It’s like an instinct, like how Dave talks about how time feels to him. 

You look at the two leaders and you throw your hands out towards them. Just as before with your sickle chains burst from your grip and you yank the two leaders forward on the ground towards you. Kankri lets you go and hops down from the quest bed to walk over to them his hands are behind his back and when he speaks. 

“I think,” he says pleasantly to the two shrimp, “that the three of us can come to a reasoned middle ground now that we’re all working in good faith.” 

“That was so cool!” Jade exclaims and you spin around in the air to see her standing on the ground next to Dave. Dave who rapidly launches himself through the air to hang off of you and kiss you like he’s dying. Or like you did. 

“That was cool as fuck.” Dave agrees, his nose still brushing yours. His cheeks are damp still and you know the agony of your death through is soulmark must have made him cry. Guilt curls inside you at the mere thought. 

“Also you have fuckin’ wings, man.” Dave adds, pulling back. 

You turn around but of course you don’t see them. You do get to see Mituna laugh at you and Sollux facepalm. You hear a camera shutter sound and spin around again to see Dave, he turns his digital camera around in his hands and shows you the picture of yourself on the small display. Your new cape narrows rapidly to your spine in your midback because there two giant, semi-transparent, bright red, glittering butterfly wings have boomed. They’re like the Summoner’s wings but only neon mutant red. 

Reaching back you can feel them, thin and delicate but you can also feel through them when you touch them despite having been unaware of their existence until now. You land and bend one slightly and crane your head to see it. You have a moment of kneejerk horror at your mutant blood being exposed but it passes. 

“-think this kinda stuff just happens.” Jade says softly and you look around to see her standing with an arm around her brother who still looks despondent. He feels bad that you died. Dave is putting his camera away again but no doubt he still feels raw, you know you did when he died. 

“I’m so sorry.” you say again. Dave shrugs and sniffs a little despite himself but he’s trying to play it off as cool. 

“It’s fine. You’re still one ahead of me in the running total of ‘my soulmate died and made me have a meltdown’ so it’s chill.” he assures you. 

You can tell it is not chill but it’s fine now and you can, as you agreed to with Kanaya, make it up to him later. 

“Come on, Dave. We gotta go. We shouldn’t leave Eridan unsupervised on my planet for too long.” Jade says, giving Jake a last squeeze and rushing over to Dave and linking arms with him. 

“Wait, unsupervised? What about the rest of your team?” Jake asks worriedly. 

“Oh, it’s so gross. Rufioh and Horuss just ditched us to make out with each other in the woods.” Jade says, sticking out her tongue in disgust. 

“Oh no.” Kankri says.

“Oh fuck.” Sollux says.

“Damara is going to murder them all.” Mituna says. 

“That… that wasn’t supposed to happen. I may have made a terrible mistake.” you say slowly, with dawning horror. 

  
  



End file.
